Norfolk Area Ships and Personnel Head to Haiti

The horrific disaster in Haiti is having ripple effects here in Hampton Roads as Navy and other personnel are being deployed to help assist in the nightmare after effects of the 7.0 earthquake earlier This week. Many local families are seeing their loved ones deployed on an emergency basis - including one receptionist in my office complex. With so much of Haiti's capital city destroyed, Navy vessels can transport supplies, provide medical assistance and the hospital ship Comfort can provide back up for damaged hospitals. Word is that local personnel may be deployed to Haiti for 8 weeks or more. Also deploying is the area's urban rescue team that has in the past responded to events such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot: *

Sailors and Coast Guardsmen from the Hampton Roads area will play a critical role in the U.S. effort to deliver humanitarian assistance to Haiti, with thousands of locals on standby to deploy to the impoverished country and some already there.
*
At least four Norfolk-based ships received orders Wednesday to prepare to help in the recovery effort, said Ted Brown, a spokesman for Norfolk's Fleet Forces Command. The amphibious assault ship Bataan, the guided missile cruiser Normandy and the dock landing ships Fort McHenry and Carter Hall will probably leave by Friday.
*
Expeditionary forces based at the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base also are standing by to deploy, Brown said. Several U.S. Coast Guard ships already have left for Haiti.
*

Additional Navy ships that have been asked to prepare to deliver humanitarian assistance include the frigate Underwood, based in Mayport, Fla., and the hospital ship Comfort, homeported in Baltimore. The San Diego-based aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, which left Norfolk on Tuesday after finishing its midlife overhaul, has been redirected to load relief equipment and supplies and will arrive off the coast of Haiti today, the military said.